Internet Security Suite lost license file

[cobrapatrol]

I had been operating with Internet Security for the past year and have made no recent changes to my computer configuration.  I use MS Vista 64-bit SP2 with auto updating.  A couple of days ago I noticed that my Avast system tray icon has a red x and it does not recognize my current 3-device license file.  I tried manually uploading the license file and get "The AAVM subsystem detected a RPC error" I unloaded Avast! (using aswclear.exe) and re-loaded the latest downloaded version of Internet Security and the license file was still not recognized with the same error.  Lastly, I tried buying another year's subscription and downloaded that license file but still the same error.

What is going wrong?

[DavidR]

The error message "The AAVM subsystem detected a RPC error" is usually associated with having another VA installer or remnants of one on your system. Given that you have had AIS for a year, this is a little strange.

What version of avast are you using avast IS 7 or 8 (though your mention of downloading the latest version would indicate 8.0..1483) ?

The reason I mention/ask this is that there have been some users experiencing problems with avast 8 and Vista 64bit, so I don't know if this might be having an impact. Though this generally presents itself during installation in that it doesn't get past the progress bar.

[cobrapatrol]

Thanks for your reply.  The current uploaded version is 8.0.1483.  The previous version was Version 7.   Since this started happening spontaneously before I tried to reload/upgrade it I wonder if there may be another factor.  Windows does upload security updates periodically, I also run Malwarebytes (which I have tried turning off - no effect).  I have not tried an older restore point, though. 

Any thoughts on other interactions?

Thanks - Jim

[DavidR]

I would suggest a clean reinstall (not sure if that is what you did):
- Download the latest version of avast, 8.0.1483 http://files.avast.com/iavs5x/avast_internet_security_setup.exe and save it to your HDD, somewhere you can find it again (if you didn't save your last download). Use that when you reinstall.

- Download the avast! Uninstall Utility, aswClear.exe find it here and save it to your HDD (it has uninstall tools for all versions).

• 1. Now uninstall avast! - using add remove programs, if you can't do that (as appears to be the case) start from the next step, reboot.
• 2. run the avast! Uninstall Utility, it will request it be run from safe mode (and will handle the boot into safe mode), first for 7.x if previously installed and then for 8.0, once complete reboot into normal mode.
• 3. install the latest version, reboot.

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You might want to read this on the Vista 64bit avast8 issue that is effecting some users to be forewarned http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=116309.0, the early part of the topic is more reporting the problem and anger it isn't until later in the topic that a workaround is mentioned.

One is a registry modification shown in Reply #57 here http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=116309.msg915035#msg915035.

The other is a change in the Device Manager, possibly the easier/safer of the two options, see Reply #93 http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=116309.msg920639#msg920639.